Tax Planning

A fraudster who reaped £1.6m in VAT from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by pretending to be a number of dead Hollywood film producers, has been jailed for more than three years.

Revenue from taxes on home buyers and savers looks likely to exceed money hauled in from ‘sin taxes' such as those applied to alcohol and tobacco, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Celebrity tax scheme promoters have failed to stop the Revenue forcing their clients to pay their bills up front. Experts predict a wave of high-profile bankruptcies.

Advisers who introduced clients to the Icebreaker scheme knew "perfectly well" its sole aim was to enable tax avoidance, lawyers for an insurance company have claimed, citing a Tribunal ruling.

Calls for professionals, including financial advisers, lawyers and accountants, who advise on tax avoidance to be prosecuted have been branded "flawed" and "disingenuous" by deVere Group.

Thousands more families will be required to pay inheritance tax (IHT) this year as an improving economy and rising house prices pull them above the threshold, according to figures.

The guidance guarantee will fuel demand for independent advice and will be a "huge opportunity" for advisers, pensions minister Steve Webb has said.

Auditors Baker Tilly are under investigation by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) following allegations of unethical conduct.

Higher rate taxpayers who do not pay into a pension scheme are missing out on a collective £225m in tax relief every year, according to data from Prudential.

More advisers are worried about their clients incurring lifetime allowance (LTA) tax charges, according to retirement wealth platform James Hay Partnership, which saw queries around the upper contribution limit spike in the last quarter.